HARTFORD — City officials have backed away from a proposal to bond up to $60 million for a new minor-league baseball stadium north of downtown, saying they will instead seek a private partner to finance much of the project.

In a letter to the city council Friday, Mayor Pedro Segarra formally withdrew the resolution that faced loud opposition from a group of taxpayers — and some fellow Democrats — who argued that the cost for a ballpark would be too high for a poor city that endures budget cuts every year.

Segarra, who called the stadium a "catalyst" for generating tax revenue, said he still wants a major redevelopment of the area, including new housing, retail and the 9,000-seat ballpark, but "without placing additional tax burdens on Hartford property owners."

The council is expected to see a new resolution for the stadium at its Aug. 11 meeting, Segarra said. That plan would be contingent on the "public-private partnership" that has yet to be determined; proposals from developers are due Aug. 1.

Rock Cats owner Josh Solomon said in statement Friday afternoon that "additional private development and investment in Downtown North to assist in paying for the ballpark has always been the plan. We are extremely excited to be moving forward in Hartford."

The city's shift toward private funding comes about a week after a public meeting in which some residents aired their anger over the stadium project that Segarra once called a "done deal." The mayor and his aides had been in private talks with the Rock Cats, the Double A Eastern League affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, since fall 2012 about the possibility of moving the team from New Britain to the capital city.

Rock Cats' leaders have said they would sign a 25-year lease and move to Hartford if the city builds a new stadium. The proposal, originally presented to the council last month, has called for a 220,000-square-foot facility to be completed by April 1, 2016, in time for that year's minor league season.

Segarra and Thomas Deller, the city's development director, said the new resolution will include the lease agreement with the Rock Cats. What will be missing is the stipulation that the city bond as much as $60 million.

A public hearing on the stadium could happen shortly after Aug. 11, followed by a council vote in September, city officials said. Deller said he also expects the city to present its recommended private partner in September for the council's approval.

Based on conversations with developers, said Deller, the city expects to receive at least four proposals from its recent request for bids to redevelop the Downtown North area off I-84 — currently a sea of parking lots separating downtown from the North End.

The city's contribution to the redevelopment could come in the form of land, road improvements and "decorative street lights," Deller said. "We don't know. The [request for proposals] is asking developers to say what they need from us to make this happen."

Hartford officials say the stadium would bring the equivalent of 665 full-time jobs and more than 900 construction jobs, and generate 23,700 hotel room stays annually. Critics of the project have questioned those figures.

On Friday, Council Minority Leader Larry Deutsch of the Working Families Party said, "If there is going to be a stadium at all, and I capitalize the 'I' in 'if,'" many of the jobs should "lead to a career" rather than be low-wage, service industry positions.

Several city Democrats stood with Segarra and Solomon on the steps of city hall June 4, when the stadium deal was announced. The apparent show of support was short-lived.

Council President Shawn Wooden — who is challenging state Sen. Eric Coleman, a stadium opponent, in an August primary for Coleman's district seat — began to state publicly a few weeks ago that he would not vote for a $60 million stadium project that does not feature private financing. "I think this is a good step," Wooden said Friday.

"I want to congratulate the citizens of Hartford for standing up and being heard on this proposal," Coleman said in a statement in which he also criticized the initial lack of input from residents. "Nothing is a done deal until the people of this city say it is."

Some business leaders expressed optimism that investors will be drawn to the possibilities of downtown, where there are hundreds of new apartments in the making and UConn's $115 million plan to relocate its regional campus to the former Hartford Times property. And in downtown's northern edge, a new skate park atop the I-84 tunnel is set to open Saturday.

Oz Griebel, CEO and president of the MetroHartford Alliance, the city's business chamber, said his group met with Segarra and major investors Thursday to discuss the stadium funding.